How I Got To #1 on Product Hunt as a Nobody

I am a nobody on the internet; not an influencer, not a VC, and not a serial entrepreneur. I only had about 100 followers on Twitter prior to launching. But my product, One Profile, was recently awarded #1 Product of the Day on Product Hunt (PH) and that has changed my life. 

Here are One Profile’s pre and post-launch stats in a nutshell:

• Users: from 200+ to 1500+ (ref: https://oneprofile.info)
• Revenue: from $36 to $650 (ref: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/sekaijyuu + generous coffee donations)
• Website visits: from 100+ visits to 10,000+ visits (ref: https://simpleanalytics.com/oneprofile.info)

Sharing here how I did it. Maybe it’ll help change yours too.

Before launch:

1) Build a passionate fan base, doesn’t have to be many

Be an active community member in your space, help others a lot, and give out product freebies where necessary. I became an active member on https://www.indiehackers.com and many of my quality users came from them.

2) Build a product that is already usable, not at an alpha stage

The standards nowadays are very high and a broken MVP is a quick turn off. Before launching a product, make sure your product is largely usable and pay strong attention to design — first impression matters a lot.

3) Launch repeatedly in communities like

https://news.ycombinator.com/show, https://www.reddit.com, https://www.indiehackers.com, https://www.startupschool.org/, LinkedIn, Facebook groups, and Twitter.

I launched almost every week on each site, refining my pitch. This has helped me get new sets of users and more importantly, feedback.

4) Ask a Product Hunter to hunt your product

My Hunter was https://chrismessina.me/. When a Hunter hunts your product, his/her followers will get notified. That helps in getting more reach on your launch day. Find a Hunter who aligns with your product: https://500hunters.com

5) Follow best practices here

https://blog.producthunt.com/how-to-launch-on-product-hunt-7c1843e06399

Showcase between 6–8 of your product’s most attractive features in the photo carousel using high-res images. If you’re adding a video, make sure it’s well produced. Finally, your pitch has to be straight to the point.

6) Create a blog/newsletter and collect emails, ethically

I think it’s best to host a blog on your own domain. I host mine on https://ghost.org/ and activated the membership features which enables email subscription. On the day I launched, I had about 200+ emails in my mailing list.

7) Make sure server can handle traffic

Prepare for the best-case scenario i.e. traffic spikes to your website. Fortunately, I host my web service on https://render.com/ and they made it so easy to upgrade your server. It’s like Heroku but way better. I will write more on this later.

• The first week of launching on Product Hunt (ref: https://simpleanalytics.com/oneprofile.info?start=2020-02-23&end=2020-02-29)

8) Perfecting your landing pages

Getting feedback on your landing page is absolutely important — DO NOT rely on your eyes alone. Get others to critique your home page and pricing page, the top 2 landing pages. https://www.indiehackers.com/ has a dedicated group for this very purpose.

9) Request your Hunter to schedule your product launch at 12:01 am PST

There’s no ‘best time’ or ‘best day’ to launch a product but it’s better to maximize the 24-hour time frame. Just pray and hope popular figures like https://www.pablostanley.com/ don’t launch a product on the same day!

Launch Day:

1) Your introduction in the first comment

Thank your hunter by @ mention them and describe what your product is. Share your story on why you built your product and do a quick comparison with other products if you think it’s worth it.

How I did my first comment on One Profile’s launch page:

2) Announce launch in the communities mentioned above

If you’re lucky and made it to the top 3 about an hour after you launched, leverage that momentary top spot by mentioning it in your post title that you’re currently trending at #1. This will trigger a stronger interest.

3) Send an update to subscribers on your blog/newsletter

Again, if you’re trending top 3, mention this in your post title so that the first thing your subscribers see is trending Product Hunt #1. Leave a link to the product post and ask if they’re interested to have a look.

4) Reach out to your fanbase

If your product resonates with people, they’ll instantly become your fans and will support you. Normally, these people will reach out to you and personally tell you that they love your product. Save their contact, tell them about your launch.

5) Keep followers posted on social media

Do a thread on Twitter about your launch progress. Post screenshots of your dashboard every other hour. Do a poll asking your followers where you think your product will end up. Use https://buffer.com to post to your other social platforms.

Post a screenshot of your dashboard to your followers on social media like so:

6) Reply to comments on your product page

This is important because you’re building rapport with your potential customers and increasing comment counts and reviews. Answer questions positively. An upvote from them will notify their followers about your product launch.

And that’s it!

I really am a nobody on the internet, so I think this is truly an organic approach to launch on PH. If it works for me, there’s a good chance it’ll work for you too.

Here is One Profile’s product launch page if you’d like to check it out:

https://www.producthunt.com/posts/one-profile

I hope this post was useful.

All the best with your launch and don’t ever give up.

—Yusuf, founder of One Profile

View my One Profile